Ladybird Diner in Lawrence cures hangovers and hunger

Don’t ask Meg Heriford, the proprietor of the two-week-old Ladybird Diner in Lawrence, Kansas (721 Massachusetts, 785-856-5239) if she’s using artisan breads for the sandwiches in her restaurant. After all, she’s not that far away from the iconic WheatFields Bakery.

“No, no,” Heriford says, ” this is a diner. We’re not using fancy breads or fancy coffee. Our sandwich buns are from Rainbow Bakery — the kind that Town Topic uses. They’re the best for diner burgers.”

Unlike Town Topic, however, Heriford doesn’t use pies from Overland Park-based Golden Boy Pies, Inc. She still bakes her own, and they sell out so fast that the day after the Ladybird’s opening weekend, she bought two new ovens. 

“We had sold out of pie by 2 p.m. on that first Saturday,” Heriford says. “We have some people who come into the diner just for a piece of pie and we didn’t have any. I don’t think we should ever be out of pie, but my kitchen is so tiny, we can hardly keep up with the demand, especially if we’re trying to make biscuits and meatloaf at the same time.

“Our first oven is a great deck oven from a Baptist church in Topeka,” Heriford continues. “But we’ll be using the new ovens as wingmen just to bake pies all day long. Maybe I can keep up. I’ll try. We can produce enough pies for our dining room, but we’re still not at the place where I can sell whole pies, and we get a lot of requests for them.”

Heriford’s pies — and yes, there is lard in the crust, which is why it’s so flaky and delicious — are the calling cards for the new restaurant. I made my first visit to the venue on Ladybird Diner’s opening weekend just to taste her Mexican chocolate pie that, thank goodness, was still available. The dark-chocolate pie is more Belgian than Mexican: Heriford uses sumptuously rich Belgian Callebaut in her recipe but adds Mexican cayenne and cinnamon. “The spices are very discreet,” she says. “It’s not fiery. Just a tickle. And it’s really good with coffee”

Ladybird Diner features two fruit pies and two cream pies daily. “I want to get to the point,” Heriford says, “where we can offer eight different pies daily.”

A veteran waitress, Meg Heriford worked at the 715 restaurant in Lawrence for five years before striking out on her own — with the owners of 715 as her financial partners. “They’re my greatest champions,” she says.

The first weeks in business have been a roller coaster for the restaurateur (and mother of four children ranging in age from 18 months to 14 years old), including having the air conditioning go on the fritz on Sunday night. “It just wasn’t big enough for the number of people we have going through here,” Heriford says. “We did 770 covers on Saturday! But we’ve got a bigger unit, and it’s very cool now.”

Heriford says her other big lesson came even sooner. “When we opened, we were offering all seven of our featured blue plate specials every night. The kitchen just couldn’t keep up with that and everything else we do.”

The answer? “We now offer one blue plate special every night of the week,” Heriford says. “Sunday nights are always fried chicken. Friday night is our Cincinnati-style chili spaghetti. If people want to try all of our special dinners, they’re going to have to keep coming back.”

Heriford says she knows the secrets of a great diner: “My husband is a musician, Arthur Dodge, and musicians are all about finding the best diner in any town.”

Drinkers love a good diner, too (I certainly did, once), and Heriford swears by the Slinger as a potent hangover cure: hash browns topped with a burger patty, two eggs, chili, cheddar cheese and chopped onion.

The Ladybird Diner is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.